Marymount University Hospital & Hospice,
Curraheen,
County Cork,
T12 A710

Dr Fiona Kiely - Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Marymount University Hospital & Hospice, Cork, Ireland and Senior Clinical Lecturer, University College Cork, Ireland.

Dr Kiely qualified from University College Cork in 2002. Following a year working in general medicine in Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia, Fiona trained and worked as a general practitioner in Ireland before completing Higher Specialist Training in Palliative Medicine with the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2016. She holds diplomas in Medicine of Elderly, Child Health, Clinical Psychiatry and Clinical Dermatology and is undertaking a PhD in Palliative Care at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. Fiona has a strong interest in underpinning clinical practice and service development with robust research and her publications to date have included topics such as out-of-hours palliative care information transfer, intra-professional communication frameworks, patient-reported outcome measurement, symptom control and access to palliative care. She chairs the research committee in Marymount University Hospital & Hospice and is Vice-Chairperson of the Irish Association of Palliative Care.

Dr Mary Miller - Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Sobell House, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Palliative Medicine, University of Oxford, Director of OxCERPC, and Clinical Lead for NACEL.

Dr Miller qualified from University College Cork, Ireland in 1988. She trained and worked in palliative medicine in Ireland, Sweden, and the UK and has been a consultant in palliative medicine in Oxford since 1998. Dr Miller has a strong interest in education; completing a Diploma in Learning and Teaching at Oxford University 2005, was Training Programme Director and Regional Specialty Advisor (2002 – 2008) and has led the Oxford Advanced Courses in Pain and Symptom Management since 2005. She is an elected member of the Education Committee of the Association of Palliative Medicine and joint lead of the postgraduate education special interest forum. Since the inception of OxCERPC in 2017, Dr Miller and the team are focusing on building an exciting portfolio of courses, building research readiness and reaching out to practitioners across the globe.

Mr Tom Crook - Music Therapist at Sobell House Hospice in Oxford, UK.

Mr Crook is the music therapist at Sobell House Hospice in Oxford. As well as working in palliative and bereavement care, he has presented his work at a range of events in the UK and Europe. Before training at the University of the West of England, he worked as a professional musician within the music industry as a session guitarist, producer and published songwriter, with such artists as Axwell (Swedish House Mafia), Elisabeth Troy (Clean Bandit), Mew, Neil Halstead (Slowdive), Jamie Scott (One Direction), A1 People and Jackie Oates. He continues to write and sing his own songs with Band of Hope, a collective from Wallingford, Oxfordshire, who often perform at festivals and have recently had songs aired on BBC 6Music.

Dr Aoife Lowney - Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Marymount University Hospital & Hospice, Cork.

Dr Lowney is a graduate of University College Cork, trained in palliative medicine in Ireland, and was awarded a Masters in the Science of Palliative Medicine from Kings College London. She worked as a consultant in Palliative Medicine in the NHS for 6 years, during which time she set up the Oxford Kidney Supportive Care Service in collaboration with Nephrology colleagues and worked for NHS England on the Renal Services Transformation Programme. Dr Lowney's published work largely focuses on the subject of Kidney Supportive Care. She will speak about Kidney Supportive Care Services and her involvement in a new published international curriculum for Kidney Supportive Care through the International Society of Nephrology.

09.15 - Coffee and registration

09:30 - Welcome and Introduction

09:40 - End of life care for patients with Parkinson’s disease (Dr Mary Miller)

Caring for patients as they lose their oral route – goals of care, medications to use and those to avoid.
Thinking ahead and use of Rotigotine patches. Do you always need them?

10:25 - Hydration at the end of life (Dr Mary Miller)

Language used to discuss diminishing drinking, mouth care and hydration. What does the evidence tell us and what is on the horizon?

11:00 - Coffee Break

11:30 - Benzodiazepines: an update (Dr Mary Miller)

Are these the best medications for the management of anxiety and delirium at the end of life – are there other options when consciousness is a priority?

12:00 - What is new in kidney supportive care? (Dr Aoife Lowney)

2025 Marymount lecture: What is new in kidney supportive care? An international collaboration and curriculum.

13:00 - Lunch

13:30 - Breathlessness (Dr Mary Miller)

Look at the evidence – do opioids and Mirtazapine work in the management of breathlessness? What else can we use?

14:15 - Break

14:30 - Music therapy (Mr Tom Crook)

Using the language of music to explore end of life care and the making of legacies.

15:45 - Final remarks

16.00 - Close of day

Knowledge to inform your practice

Resources from which to continue learning and adapt that learning in practice

A means of ensuring your practice compares with ‘good practice’, benchmarking against your peers

Stimulation, time for thinking and reflection